| |
In lugnet.mediawatch, Dave Schuler wrote:
> For real? I mainly follow the micro-scale Mega Bloks, so the comings and
> goings of the other scales don't really hit my radar.
>
> Do you have a citation for that Pooh info? This is the first I've heard of
> it.
I'm not having any luck pulling up any direct proof of it (most of the legit
news source pages have expired, and all that's really left are Wikipedia and a
handful of blogs that only hint at the LEGO/Disney/Pooh aspect), but here's the
gist of it, as I understand it:
1. A.A. Milne created Winnie the Pooh and wrote several books based on the
character.
2. Milne designated all rights to publish the existing books to Dutton
publishers, and all rights to the character outside of the existing books
(including all merchandising rights, film/TV rights, and I believe all rights to
publish new books based on the character) to Stephen Slesinger. Slesinger's
deal involved a $1000 up-front fee and 66% of his income from use of the
character. These rights apply to the United States (and possibly Canada),
specifically. Outside of North America, Milne retained all of his rights, and
passed those on to the Pooh Properties Trust.
3. Slesinger then died in 1953, and his stake, through Slesinger Inc., fell to
his wife. She signed an agreement with Disney, where they would pay SI 2% of
_their_ proceeds (66% of which should then get passed on to the Milne estate,
under the original agreement).
4. Daphne Milne, grand-daughter of A.A. Milne, also signed an agreement with
Disney for film rights.
5. Slesinger Inc. sued Disney over payments from the licensed rights, which
Disney "responded" to by shredding 40 boxes of documents. Slesinger Inc.'s suit
was eventually dismissed.
6. Disney, who were responsible for the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act that
allowed Slesinger Inc. to keep legal control over the most lucrative
Pooh-related rights, apparently got sick of how that impacted them on their
licensed rights, and were involved in lawsuits that were aimed at getting
Slesinger's rights revoked and returned to the Milne estate. Part of that
attempt involved licensing the name of "Clare Milne", daughter of Christopher
Robin Milne (son of A.A. Milne, and the namesake of the Cristopher Robin
character), from the Pooh Properties Trust. Courts ruled in favor of Slesinger
Inc. this time, and certain licensing agreements between Disney and the Milne
estate were voided as a result.
I don't know the specifics of those agreements, but as I recall, part of it was
what allowed Disney to sub-license the property to The LEGO Company in the first
place.
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
11 Messages in This Thread:
 
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
